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Topic: POND EXPANSION PROJECT (Read 6368 times)

Maggie--you and Jim really got it looking good. hope the rain holds out for you.Question-- Is that cattails I see on the left side of the pond and lilly pads on this end. If so, you sure have 2 bad boys to try and conrol, as if you don't already know that. Hope not.

Jim is working on cleaning up the bog area. The left side upper edge is the exit of the pond: The scrub trees cattails and yellow flag fill up the right bottom corner All of it will be removed, I panned from left to right and stitched the photos together so it is not a true image but the best I can do for now

Time for an update:The weather has been perfect for working on the pond.

Jim almost slid into the pond 3 times working in this short run from the bog to the ferns.It is steeper and mushier than it appears in the photo.

Once he reach the ferns he went around to the pine tree on the far right and worked his way back.

First thing was to remove a lot of scrub trees and several old elm stumps on the west side between the ferns on the left and the white pine on the right.

Using a scythe we hand cut the cattails loaded them into the gator and dumped them out at our brush pile.

After about 6 hours it looked like this:

Back to digging. The cattails are gone along with all the stumps and scrubby bushes and saplings:

We had a big rainstorm late in the afternoon yesterday.I took this photo this morning:

The next step is to rebuild the dam and get ready for the guy with the bulldozer to clean up the mess we have on shore.We still have some little touch up here and there that needs to be done before he comes, IE the beach area still has to be tapered off and some trees need to be taken down to give him room to move the dirt around.The operator is thinking he can be here the first week in August.

No the pond can not freeze solid. It is over 10 -12 ft deep in two large areas.Yes the main reason we started the project was to make it a healthy environment again for raising fish.We are trying to be as self sufficient as possible.

We will stock it with shiners, fat head minnows, crayfish,yellow perch and large mouth bass. With 2 sections at 10 ft and 12 ft and if we can get the pond back to completely clear water we will throw in a few rainbow trout also.

That looks super Maggie. Lots of hours of hard work have gone into this project. Have you guys had the flooding rains that a lot of the Northeast has sustained? Down here we have seen on our newscasts about torrential rains and floods in the area but I did not know if you had been directly by this system.

The water looks muddy but I am sure once it settles out it will be crystal clear. Last but not least, that will be a good fishing hole for many, many years to come.

What a beautiful pond. My pastor has a small stocked pond on his place, an allows me to fish when I want to. I took my Michigan family fishing an we caught 40 or 50 huge blue gills an even the smaller one we caught would have been keepers on any lake in Michigan. We kept 15 an the rest was taught a lesson an released. Farm ponds make for good memories, an yours will too, an who knows how those memories will effect generation to come. If you can't tell I am envious Maggie.

Yes Double B it is "very" muddy. It filled really fast with the big storms that have passed through our area over the last few weeks.

We will start stocking it next spring. Jim and I are both very happy with how it is coming along. We still have to get the final grade done with the bulldoze and build the connecting stream and waterfalls from the silt pond to the main pond and get the sand for the beach areas so lots of work left to do but it is getting there..

Unfortunately with all the rain this summer we were not able to finish grading off and seeding the banks nor we were able to get the stream connecting the silt pond to the main pond done properly.

that in 2019 we can finish this project up. I am so over having to deal with mud everywhere.

With that said the snow storm on Thursday night made everything look beautiful. You would never know under that blanket of white the ground is uneven with clumps of mud and rocks.

The open area if you look closely in the open water there are two aerators installed to keep the water from freezing and the oxygen it creates will help grow more beneficial bacteria to eat any muck that may still be in the bottom.In the late spring early summer we will move them to water about 11 -1/2 ft deep.Right now they are in water about 4 - 5 ft. deep.